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Big minnow on the Pats this morning; along with a few smaller minnows.

Mark Twain Lake .

Cassidee still isn't so sure about the new puppy, but she's starting to warm up to her.

i love Savannah

u bUy dem wooper ploopiRs i know karE wUt siZe dem iz

One night at Housen' Bay Marina Pat and I were talking while grilling steaks outside, Steve was trying to get a backlash out of one of his reels. After reeling in his line Steve made an underhanded cast to check out his work and immediately went on point like he was going to set hook. Puzzled Pat and I looked at each other then back at Steve who had reeled in and cast again. Turning towards us Steve states some thing bite my jig, Pat and I bust out laughing, Steve says no seriously. Reeling in and casting he says there it is again, this time Pat and I both see his line move. Gabbing a flash light sure enough there is a big ole owl with Steve's jug in it's mouth. Pat and I bust out laughing and shout dude don't set hook!

Just buy the lifetime supply off Amazon and you don't have to worry about reusing them. Man I'm cheap, but not reusing bobber stop cheap.

I live on a 15 acre private lake, a few nights ago I was bass fishing at night from the bank. I was throwing a Bigfoot topwater frog along the edge of the bank and a owl came down and grabbed my frog and took off with it, i jerked it away from it when it was about 15 feet off the ground, so i immediately casted in the same spot and it came down and grabbed it again and took off over the water this time, it got about 20 foot in the air and about 50 foot from me when i jerked it this time it snapped my line and the owl dropped my frog in the middle of the lake. I was wondering if anyone has ever had this happen to them, i haven't ever heard of anyone nor has anything even clise to this ever happened to me.

Depends on your perspective. There can be an inside edge to a weedline close to shore where the water is too shallow to support weed growth. There can be weedlines deeper that will have an edge closer to shore but as a second grouping from the first example I gave. Then there are weed beds in deep water that the inside edge would be the edge closest to shallower water relative to the depth of the weedbed.

I caught a big owl night fishing with Jitterbug, not a good time.

Only one I was able to pull out of that pea soup. Caught on a Texas rigged and pegged Bk/Bl flake RT Structure Bug off of a stump in a bout 3 fow.

Still picking up deep water smallies. Nothing huge but the largest was 2.8. Boy do they fight!!!!

Here's how I decide which lines to use for various Texas rig situations. What's your approach?

Anyone try one yet? I got to use them for the first time this past weekend. They're more durable than many other toads I've tried, and the flapping leg action is pretty noisey. I rigged it on an Owner 4/0 Wide Gap Plus hook. Fish liked them, and I caught several on the same bait. One thing I noticed, they were really easy to skip, which came in handy along a stretch of over hanging willow trees bordered by milfoil beds growing to the surface - perfect area for a toad bait. This guy shook my toad off, but I'd already caught a few with it.

I'm still out there defending tradition.

It's not owl's for me but seagulls and hawks. I've lost close to 10 lures in the past 5 years to them. It's never even topwater lures either, always spinnerbaits or swimbaits. Out of fear of hooking the bird I always just cut the line and say a prayer those dummies don't eat it.

not to worry, my wife has mine, safely tucked away in her purse. ?

I love it. I fish mainly during the week. Often there are only a few other boats on the water. Sometimes none. It has been an interesting year. I have caught some nice bass and had some very good days but I haven't had a day where I have crushed them. Some days spinnerbaits work, then jerk baits, then wacky worms, then swim jigs, then swimbaits, but nothing seems to produce every day. I have caught a few really big muskies in the last 2 weeks. I was alone so the pics are not the best, but it is something I will always remember.

From my perspective(fishing from the bank), the inside edge would be the grass line facing the shore and the outside edge would be facing open water. I could be totally off base on this, but that is how I define the edges of a grass line. From a boat it would be the opposite.

Bald Eagle on the Salt River last Saturday.

Just so you all know...it's not just you boys having fun out there...?

Dunno if I posted this one yet. Not a remarkable Larry by any means, but hands down my favorite fish I've ever caught. This dude fought like a 3lb Smallie. Just unreal for a Larry. So it got me itching for Smallies. Went to the river today with the ole Ned Rig and put a whopping on them. Caught 40+. Mostly small. Different species called for a shave.

Bump!

Fresh water wasn't in the cards this weekend so tried salt from the yak at around high tide, and for the first time landed a salt water species, first striper. These guys fight hard. Landed 3 more before going home.

Went first thing this morning for some largemouths, but with the super dry summer we’ve had here, the lake has dropped over a foot since the last time I was there so the largemouths all pulled out of the shallow pads/eelgrass where I caught em last time. So I went out to the main lake and salvaged the morning with brown ones instead. Drop shot Berkley Gulp minnow took them all on the deep edge of shallow flats, best fish was right at 3lbs.

Lol, I can't believe that in this day and age people still think this. There's a TON of editing, but staging fish catches is time consuming and costly. The rule of thumb: three catches is a show. Three. Let that sink in.

Interesting........I work the course on Mondays to help with my golf habit and look for balls a day or two a week to help with the fishing habit and diabetes.

I really like my Powell rods, Irods and my Dobyns rods, but I fish with 12 baitcasters and they only fill out some needs for me. Some of my other rods include 1 Falcon Bucoo (trapcaster), 1 Abu Garcia Ike rod ( jerkbaits) and a Abu Veritas rod I use for punching. Out of your list I would consider a Powell Inferno first. Let me add some other rods to your list. Look at an Irod Genesis II rod. Take a good look at an IRG 704C, an IRG 744C and an IRG754C That Fred's Magic stick is amazing for lots of stuff. Now these rods are light in your hand and balance well. They also cost $149. I realize that is just above your stated budget, but in my opinion they are worth $20 more. Now if that is out of your budget they make a series called the Fiber series. They use the same blanks as the Genesis II rods, but they are outfitted with a slightly less expensive set of components. The Fred's Magic Stick (the 754C ) and the 704C are available in the Fiber series and these run around $110. One rod I fish that you definitely would not think of is sold by Dicks Sporting Goods only. It is a Quantum Escalade. They sell a couple, but the 7 foot MH is the one I am referring to. It is as sensitive as many of my other rods including the Falcon Bucoo and my Powell. The rod uses an IM8 rod blank and good components. It specs for baits weighing 1/4 to 1 1/2. It is a bit on the stiffer side in the middle and transitions into a nice tip. It would fish a frog or horny toad as well as a spinnerbait, buzzbaits or chatterbaits. I use mine for larger deeper running cranks as well as bigger texas rigs and carolina rigs. It would handle your jigs as well. This is not a fancy named rod, it is basically a house brand for Dicks. They advertise it as $99 but it is always on sale for $49. Might make a good combo with your CT reel for now and let you save up for a cranking setup sooner. I see some reviews complaining about tip breakage, but when you read their comments they try to use this rod for big salt water species. Ridiculous. I have caught bass up to 5 pounds on mine as well as some decent sized stripers too. Lastly I would look at a Daiwa Tatula XT which runs around $100. I would consider either the 7'3' MH which rates for 1/4 to 1 ounce or the 7'3 Heavy which rates for 1/2 to 1 1/2 ounces. The most important thing is I would stay away from any rod that had the Duckett name on it. Just my opinion, I had a friend that sold them and he would never touch one for himself. He ran all Dobyns Furys (7 of them actually) LOL

She'll warm up to her soon. Then they will be best friends.

New for 2018 WolfyBrandon

My TW order status is shipped, and I have a UPS tracking number, but it is not updated yet. Most likely it will arrive next Monday from CA to DC.

I like xfast rods for single hook applications when using flourocarbon or copolly. I fish setups that are tuned as a system. I never like an xfast with braid.

I’ll climb rocks, walk through bees and poison ivy no problem, all day. But once I have crunchy beetles and soft moths flying down the back of my shirt, I’m going home. They are immune to OFF.

I second what A-Jay says about “your lake”. Once I got side imaging units on my boat, I was amazed at what I saw in areas I’d fished hundreds of times over the years. They can show you so much more detail than traditional 2D sonar, and for me, it makes a world of difference especially when offshore fishing.

Its the only trailer I use on spinnerbaits but I break the worm off at about an inch from the tail. That way the tail goes about 2-3 inches behind the skirt. I have had very good luck with system. I try to match the worm color to the skirt color.

how important are your FF to you? Very - turn them on when I launch and never turn them off until loading out - every time out Did you find that your skill as a fisherman increased significantly when you were able to visualize what was under/around your boat? Definitely Am I limiting my own growth as a fisherman by not having a FF? Not necessarily...

First-time poster here, hello to all you Mass bass fishermen and fisherwomen. I have been reading articles on this site for a long time and haven't even bothered to look at the forums; looks like there's a bigger bass community in this state then I thought! But I figured I would give a report on a couple of my recent trips... I mostly fish, some of you as well, at A1. I'm not sure what it was but the first couple of weeks of July there I did not have a lot of luck on. But the latter half of the month has been excellent (perhaps) because of some of the rain we have received in that time. On 7/22 I went out there pretty much all afternoon on my kayak, with the exception of an hour and a half break for food. It was cloudy and a little windy almost all day and rained from 5:30 - 8pm. I was using (my favorite in rain) a black spinnerbait and caught around 20 bass that afternoon along with a lot of picks. They were HAMMERING that bait. The bites were jarring to say the least. Nothing too big, biggest probably a little over 3 lbs. The rest were cookie-cutter for A1; nice solid 2 lb fish after 2lb fish. I went this past Saturday as well. Got there later than I wanted to but was still surprised at the action that I did get being the middle of the day (fished from 11am-2pm). This time, since there was a good chop on the water, I threw a chartreuse spinnerbait and caught 6 bass in about 3 hours on it. I lost a couple of decent fish on a 6in dinger too. I sure am glad that the water level of that place has been steady this year. Normally, like in years past, by this time in the summer the water level is very low and the fishing becomes difficult with all that milfoil. Here's to hoping the water stays high and the lines tight!

I've been a Faber fan since forever. Way back in the wec on versus days.i believe their story more than dillashaw also.

Fishing has always been #1. Used to have a few other hobbies like wakeboarding, mountain biking, and cars...But I faded away from them. My only other hobby now is diving...My entire family dives - dad is an instructor so it's sort of in my blood. Wish I could do it more but its somewhat limited here where I live. Most of my diving these days is just helping my dad with his classes occasionally. I probably could do more if I didn't fish so much...But fishing is #1 .

Golf. I also work at a golf course so I get free golf and make enough money for my fishing habit.

I still have some of the Tru-Tungsten ones if I need to use large weights. Since I only paid like $20 for 600 rings I don't worry about re-using them. Allen

Excitement as a 4+ goes completely airborne, then defeat as it spits your frog back to you . Also, this is what the Susquehanna Flats looked like the week before the Elite event was supposed to be there...Perfect conditions. Things changed fast to make that postponement happen.

We've had some very minor runs in with Mr Porcupine - although he & his friends have set up shop all around my property - they only 'visit' once or twice a month. Dogs got into one that was 'sleeping on the side of the road' during a run last year while I was in Mexico - sad day for everyone involved. A-Jay

Bailey *almost* got a woodchuck last night. Never seen her run so fast. Luckily, she's very obedient off leash. When I yelled, "No - Down" hissed a little, she stopped dead, and got down. Good Girl! In other news, Rage Craws on Jika Punch Rigs are total waste of time.

Yup .... me as well. My brothers must think i get them for free because they take some every time they are in my garage.

Got the same thing and it was my wife's idea !

The owner can't track down the proof of purchase? Does he know where he stole...bought it from?

Hit the water from 10 am thru 2:30 pm today. Managed to boat 7 bass with a few pickerel thrown in. Big bass coming on a 4” pit boss from lily pads in about 5/6 fow. 6lb 12oz fatty.

https://www.amazon.com/Portable-Wallet-Holder-Organizer-Storage/dp/B0773TM46W

I got the 3000D CXH on a 7'0 ML Kistler Helium 3. It's an incredible reel. Every bit as good as my Stradic CI4. The model I have has a super deep spool and holds a ton of line. I'm using it for drop shotting so I wanted 20lb braid to a fluoro leader. Because it hold so much line, I filled the spool with a bunch of cheap mono backing. It's been flawless. Wait till Ebay offers another coupon. You should be able to get one for around $125 to $140.